Living simple. Living happy. Trying to stay under budget.

Kana’s visit last week proved to be way busier than I thought, thus – no blog posts.

We had a wonderful time! We went to the Natural History Museum at the U of M campus in Ann Arbor, Lions game (which they won, boo-ya!), Canada for shopping, the Henry Ford Museum, the DIA and lots of shopping and eating. Her stay here went by so fast! When I drove her back to the airport Friday, it really seemed like she had just been here one day. Now she is in NYC and I hope she is enjoying her time there!

Kana and Stacy tailgating before Lions game

Something very exciting happened the day she arrived (besides getting the first floor finished and fully set-up). I received a call in the afternoon for a job offer! I’ll be working part-time (24 hours per week) doing office work for an agency that helps children find foster homes. I start January 3rd. I think this will be a nice balance of having something to do and make money, but also have plenty of time to do work at home. Because of this job offer, I had to visit my wonderful doctor last week for an impromptu physical, blood test and tetanus shot. On Monday. During the snowstorm and horrible icy roads. But, I made it there and back without issue, and my blood results came back with flying colors. My arm still hurts from the tetanus shot though.

Another thing that happened during Kana’s visit is that I ate like absolute crap. Poutine, sliders, onion rings, Mexican, Italian, Hershey’s kisses, Japanese Kit Kats, honey-flavored pretzels, and so on. By the end of the week my body was waving the white flag. “MAKE IT STOP!!!!” But, it took until today for me to wake up and say “time for a change”. So I am cleaning up the diet. Starting January 1st I am doing The Whole30 (http://whole9life.com/2010/05/whole-30-v2/). If you want to do it with me, by all means! I almost have my mom on board 😉 As sad as it is for me to admit, the hardest part will be the no alcohol part. But, I think this will be good for my alcohol moderation. I have two New Year resolutions: work out and train to be able to ski a 15k race and drink less alcohol. Last year my resolution was to give up drinking all soda except a root beer here and there. I had two root beers this year and no other soda. I kept my resolution last year and I know I can do it again this year. The Whole30 will help me to start off 2011 on the right foot.

Here is something interesting: I live in Detroit, but I’m from New England. The Detroit Lions are playing the New England Patriots today. Of course I’m rooting for my Pats. Thankfully, I won’t be alone. Although my father-in-law is a Detroit man born and raised, he is a big-time Pats fan. There may be some trash-talking today. At least I’ll have one other person on my side 🙂

Happy T-day to everyone! May the best team win. By the best team, I mean the Patriots. 😉

Happy Tuesday! I know that for many of you, this is your last day of the week– your Friday, if you will. Have a nice holiday and vacation! Since Jim was here sanding the drywall today, I decided to spend a few hours out of the house to avoid breathing in the dust.

First off, I went to Penzey’s Spices to get my free 1/2 cup jar of Arizona Dreaming spice — which seems like it might be similar to taco seasoning. I’m not sure what I’ll use it for, but it was free! While I was there I also picked up some Pacific Fine Ground Sea Salt. Good stuff. From there, I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond and bought felt furniture bottoms. The floor we are going with is Bamboo and it is very soft and easily marked, thus felt furniture bottoms are a necessity. Also, there will be no heeled shoes allowed on my floor! I never thought I’d be a person who doesn’t allow people to wear their shoes in my house, but I need to protect my floor. It’ll keep dirt out as well, so that’s a bonus 🙂

I had to stop in Birmingham to visit my friend at Tiger Shoe Repair to see if he could fix Nick’s brown Ecco dress shoes. Sadly, he cannot fix them. Nick has had them for years and definitely gotten his money’s worth, but it is always better for the budget if we can fix old shoes instead of buying new ones.

Then, I was on to the Somerset Collection — dangerous place for someone on a budget. Alas, all I left with were a few freebies from Aveda (I’m on their email list), much to the disappointment of the Aveda shop girl, I’ll wager…

My final stop of the day was where I got my best deal! For my birthday, DSW sent me a $5 gift certificate. I also had a $10 rewards certificate from them. I ended up buying a pair of Minnetonka Moccasins (my favorite!) for $9 out the door — they were on clearance and then an extra 40% off. I saved $51.03! Whether I actually needed another pair of Minnetonkas is neither here nor there for that price. They will get worn, for sure.

When I got home there was another surprise for me in the mail – a free sample travel-size toothpaste from Tom’s of Maine. I’m not a die-hard Tom’s of Maine person. Not in the way I’m a die-hard Burt’s Bees person. I actually don’t prefer Tom’s toothpaste because it still has sodium lauryl sulfate in it, so we use Jason brand. But it is better that Colgate! Today was a good day for the freebies 🙂 Thanks Aveda and Tom’s!

You’ll notice the Daily Roundup will be absent this week. With Nick off of work this week (except today), all the work going on at my house, and the fact that it is a holiday week, I don’t have as much time to track and I don’t really want to know what my nutrition is like this week. 🙂 You only live once, and the holidays are meant to do just that.

I hope you’ll all check in once or twice during the rest of the week but if not, have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving.

This is actually for yesterday, but I was too tired to post before bed last night.

Productivity:

On the needles – finished the last pot holder in Nonie’s Christmas order.

Planned meals for the week and went grocery shopping

Nutrition:

4 strips of nitrate-free bacon

coffee

salad with chicken and guacamole

strawberries with primal whipped cream

Simply Bliss Mint Chip coconut ice cream

Honey Hoisin pork tenderloin with mashed cauliflower, red wine

egg nog (yeah, this isn’t great but, ’tis the season!)

Budget:

Stayed under budget in total for Costco and Holiday Market. I admittedly bought some things that were not necessary – the little Christmas pine tree, coconut ice cream, egg nog – but still ok because still under budget.

Stayed in and watched “Christmas Vacation” so didn’t spend money out.

Tip:

To clean stainless steel appliances, cut one lemon in half and sprinkle with salt. Scrub the appliances with the lemon and they will be clean and sparkling. As an added bonus, your kitchen will smell lemony fresh!

I’m afraid I don’t have a witty and/or useful post today. I spent the morning watching “Wives and Daughters”, a very good mini-series by the BBC. Netflix threatens they will only have it available to stream until December 4th. Since my house will be filled with various craftsman until past then, I figured I should get it all in now. This afternoon I ran my weekly grocery errands. I nearly bought live garland and Costco, but couldn’t decide if it is a good deal or not ($15, but I can’t remember how long it was…). I’ve never bought live garland before. I usually buy a swag for my front door at English Gardens — I love the swag with blueberries in it, so I get it there even though they are a bit pricey. So, I will see what their garland price is and decide. I did buy a little Charlie Brown pine tree from Holiday Market. I’ll take good care of it this winter and make it strong so I can plant it in the spring. It has decorations on it now and is very cute 🙂

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and gets plenty of rest in preparation for the holiday week. And Black Friday, of course. 🙂